Snowdon moves to a new beat

THE EARL of Snowdon - uncle of embattled Prince Charles - has had a pacemaker fitted after his heart stopped 'a couple of times' over the New Year.

The flirtatious 73-year-old father-off our, who was married to Princess Margaret for 18 years, is now recovering in his Pounds 3million house in Kensington.

He tells me: 'All is perfectly fine now.

The pacemaker is a marvellous contraption.' The drama started when Snowdon - who had no symptoms to indicate his heart was not ticking away as it should - went to see his doctor about an unrelated complaint. 'I was given some tests. I suppose it was an ECG heart test because they put lots of sticky tape on my chest, and then they told me that my heart had stopped a couple of times.' He was rushed into surgery at St Thomas's Hospital, in central London, where he had the pacemaker fitted to regulate his heart beat.

'I didn't have a general anaesthetic,' says Snowdon through his famously stiff upper lip.

'They can do it while you are awake.

It's quite marvellous.

'The nurses were fantastic and through the window I had a splendid view of Big Ben - so I did not even need a watch with me.' Throughout his adult life, Snowdon has suffered from the effects of having polio when a teenager, which left him with a limp. In recent years, he has been in constant pain and has had to resort to using a wheelchair at times, but he stoically insists there is nothing wrong.

Though living alone, Lord Snowdon says he is being looked after by his second wife Lucy, 62, who was present at the operation with their daughter Frances, 23.

Lucy 'divorced' him in 2000 - after her discovery that he had a young son by his then lover, writer Melanie Cable-Alexander, 39 - but they never collected their decree absolute, which would have ended the marriage, and they are still husband and wife.

Photographer Snowdon, who last year completed a gruelling trip through Siberia for his latest book, Snowdon On Russia, adds: 'I have to take it easy for a while - but certainly not forever.

'I am already planning a photographic exhibition in America on my Russia trip later this year.'

Baby joy for Lord and Lady Rothermere

CONGRATULATIONS to Viscountess Rothermere, who gave birth to an 8lb baby girl, Iris Geraldine Lillian, on Tuesday evening.

Lady and Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust, have been married for ten years. They have a son, Vere, nine, and two other daughters, Eleanor, seven, and Theodora, two.

Iris was born at the Portland Hospital in central London, and was delivered by consultant obstetrician Marcus Setchell.

Lady Rothermere is expected to remain in hospital for a few days before returning home.

Wave of despair

AS THE waves rolled in at Noosa Heads beach resort in Queensland, Australia, just look what was washed up? The ungainly figure is that of 53-year-old Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson trying his hand - or rather his shaky legs - at surfing.

Perhaps the fearless entrepreneur, the 16th richest person in Britain, was trying to recapture his youth.

However, the bevy of bronzed beach beauties - eyeing up the surfing hunks - were less than impressed by Branson's moves.

'It wasn't a graceful sight,' says my spy in the sand dunes.'But he wouldn't give up. He told his instructors:''I am determined to do this no matter how long it takes.''' One local surfer, Guy Wilkins, 28, added:'He actually wasn't too bad ... for an old bloke.'

AS FAR as siblings go, former Chancellor Lord Lawson's tasty daughters - Nigella and Horatia - are like chalk and cheese.

While TV chef Nigella, 43, is happy to pout in front of the cameras, Horatia, 37 (pictured), has made her own bid for TV fame from behind the lens.

She has been signed up by the BBC to use her family connections to attract celebrity pundits onto the dreary sounding Britain's Best Sitcom show. 'I'm a talent producer,' Horatia tells me demurely, 'but I'd rather not be written about. I'm not interested in becoming someone about town.' We wait to see whether the Domestic Goddess will appear on the programme, but Horatia is on record as having described Nigella as 'overrated'.

PS REGARDED by some as more grand than the Queen, Jennie Bond wasted no time in rubbishing the family she reported on for 14 years, after quitting her job as the BBC's royal correspondent, describing them as 'unfriendly, distant, aloof and unapproachable'.

Nevertheless, Jennie, 53, continues to make a nice living out of them. As well as presenting a Channel 5 documentary on her encounters with royalty, she is also about to 'lift the lid on her years at the heart of the British Monarchy' at a series of theatres across the realm. 'You can earn Pounds 2,000 for an hour-and-a-half's work at that lark,' says my theatrical spy.' Pip, pip!